4/23/12

Mad Men and Game of Thrones

The past couple weeks of television viewing have been simply amazing. Two of my favorite shoes on the air are in stride; Game of Thrones and Mad Men. These two shows could not be more different, but they both are spectacularly well-produced and the acting is terrific. The fact that both shows are on Sunday evenings is icing on the cake to a great weekend.


Game of Thrones has had a number of exciting new developments. King Renly is toast after dismissing the offer of his brother Stannis and his red priestess, more on her later. Mrs. Stark seems likely to offer up the Kingslayer, Jaime Lannister, in exchange for what she believes to be her two daughters. Although, unbeknownst to everyone, Arya has just been selected as Tywin Lannister’s newest assistant. Joffrey is developing into the cruelest character of the season, ordering the brutal treatment of women all around him. Cersei has taken a new lover, another relative, whodathunkit? Tyrion is just being an all around boss and is quickly becoming my favorite character. The Red Priestess birth scene of a shadow beast was the most disturbing scene of the series so far, and spells bad news for Mr. Renly Baratheon.


Mad Men’s episode was quite “trippy” in more ways than one. The most striking aspect of the show is the disjointed flow of time, that tracks the day through the eyes of three characters; Roger, Don, and Peggy. Roger takes LSD with his wife with the famous Professor Leary, and ultimately ends in their divorce. Great scene with the Stoli vodka bottle and the cigarette, I really enjoyed the woman crawling over the place. Don and Megan have another tumultuous day, involving 6 hour drives to Lake Placid and a fight that ends in Don chasing her around their Manhattan apartment. Peggy is strung out from work, and is quickly morphing into Don, only that she is a woman, and will never be able to act like Don can in this Madison Avenue world. I enjoyed the episode, and think it sets up nicely for the second half of the season, as Don realizes he needs to get his focus back at work, which was always my favorite aspect of the series.

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